“How do you know that?”

“Because it says so on the back of the box.”

Sure enough, the duration of the wisdom cookies was listed alongside the nutritional facts.

“Ooh!” said Mini. “It has my entire daily serving of potassium and zinc!”

“Hooray.”

Mini took a bite of the cookie.

“What’s it taste like?” asked Aru.

“Kinda smoky? And cold. Like snow. I think it’s supposed to taste like my favorite book.”

“What’s your favorite book?”

Mini bit into the second half of the cookie. “The Golden Compass.”

“Never read it.”

“Really?” asked Mini, shocked. “I’ll loan you my copy when we get home.”

Home. A home that was full of books Aru had never cracked open because her mother always read to her. Aru had trouble remembering things she read herself, but if she heard something, she’d never forget it. Maybe that’s why her mom had told her so many stories. Her mom might have left her in the dark about being a Pandava, but at least hearing the stories about them had prepared Aru somewhat. Mom, thought Aru, I promise I’ll thank you as soon as I get home.

“Oh no,” said Mini.

“What? What is it?”

Mini held up her palm to show the symbol there:

“Another doomsday squiggle?” asked Aru. “Okay, well, it looks like a two, which would be really bad news, but maybe it means four?”

“It means two.”

“Noooooooo! Betrayal!”

Only two days left? And the entirety of the Kingdom of Death left unexplored?

Mini ate the rest of the wisdom cookie.

“Feel any wiser?” asked Aru anxiously.

“No?”

“What about warmer? Or bloated? Like you’re full of hot air?”

But Mini wasn’t paying attention. She was staring at the three signs.

“Deign,” she whispered. “That’s the answer.”

“Why?”

“It’s kinda like a riddle,” said Mini. “The word deign means to look down on. The arrow pointing up is a trap, because the whole point is that we have to look at what’s beneath us. It’s like when you have to make a choice you don’t want to make and you feel like you’re reluctant to do it.”

“Whoa,” said Aru. “You got all that from a cookie? Sure there isn’t any left?”

She grabbed the box from Mini and shook it. Nope. Not even a crumb. Mini stuck out her tongue.

At the edge of the DEIGN sign, a hole formed in the marble floor.

“Why is it only opening now?” asked Aru.

“Probably because we’re looking down and not up?”

Both girls peered down the hole. Something glittered far below. A strange fragrance wafted up. It smelled uncannily like Aru’s apartment in the museum: musty fabric, chai, lavender candles, and old books.

Mini frowned. “Let’s go in alphabetically,” she said.

“No way! My name starts with A. It’s your kingdom, sorta; you go first—”

“I’m the one who made sure we could get even this far.”

“Only because I let you eat the cookie!”

“Chitrigupta gave it to me—”

Aru took a deep breath and settled this the only fair and logical way she could imagine.

“NOSE GOES!” she screamed, smacking her face.

Mini, who must have anticipated Aru being sneaky, immediately smacked her face, too. Except she moved so fast that her glasses flew off her head and fell. Down the hole.

“Ughhhhh,” said Mini. “You’re the worst, Aru.”

And with that, she jumped in after them.

What Meets the Eye (and What Doesn’t)

The descent wasn’t bad. It was like a long waterslide, without the water. It dumped them out in a forest.

But something was off about this place.

Granted, Aru didn’t have much experience with forests. Once, her mother had taken her to San Francisco. At first it had seemed like it was going to be a boring trip, because they spent the whole morning with the curator of the Asian Art Museum. But after lunch, her mother had taken her to Muir Woods. Walking through it was like a delicious dream. It had smelled like peppermint. The sunlight was soft and feathered, hardly skimming the forest floor because the trees were so thick and tall.

But this place, tucked inside a pocket of the Kingdom of Death, didn’t have that foresty feel. Aru sniffed the air. There was no perfume of green and wriggling alive-ness. No smell of woodsmoke or still ponds.

It didn’t have a smell at all.

Mini toed the ground. “This doesn’t feel like dirt.”

Aru bent to check it out. She ran her fingers over the floor. It was silk.

She walked to one of the trees, planning to snap off a branch and inspect it, but instead walked straight through it.

“It’s not real!” exclaimed Mini. She jumped through another one of the trees. “This is amazing!”

A small puddle of water caught the light.

“What is this going to be, a trampoline?” Mini laughed, jumping into it. But the second she did, the liquid stuck to her legs. And then it pulled. With every blink, Mini was vanishing beneath the—